Rex Lucca

... for our walk through the walled village. There is a 14th century fort with make up part of the walls. Today it is used as a prison - your not supposed to take photos of it, but I snapped a couple off before I knew... luckily I was not spotted by the local polizi. The town was cute for sure but I'm not sure it deservered all the accolades given to it by other travellers we had met in Lucca. Having said that we did take more photos than usual.

... market (without the sampling) with lots of lovery deli's, cafe's and patisseries. Ofcourse we had to buy the local pastry called a buccellato which is kind of a cross between a biscuit and a fruit loaf... yummy with the morning coffee.<br><br>Before too long Kim pointed out her favorite bar from last time and pull me in to join her in a wine or 3. The tapas were as good as Kim had ...

... to the table. We strolled to our seats, which were at a table for four with two others who had arrived earlier (part of the Il Latini culture), and gazed above at the endless swine rumps hanging from the ceiling. The table had a huge bottle of half full red wine and the first course was nothing but pork in various forms. Needless to say, this wasn't the best culinary choice for Kate's taste, and she did her best. She asked for no ...

It was our first full day without rain!! What a wonderful way to see the Pantheon, Colosseum, and kiss Rome goodbye. And we even made it to breakfast today...that hasn't happened since London. :) Check out our pitcher of steamed milk! I'll take that over half and half any day. <br><br>After seeing the closed Pantheon at night, and it's beautiful yet stark outer image, we didn't know what to expect once we walked through its huge iron doors. I ...

Just realized those not on facebook haven't seen pictures from Pisa and Florence. No long recap of Anthony and I's weekend in Tuscany, for obvious reasons. Also note that "Anthony and Alison's Great Adventure" was like taking a knife.<br><br>Love you guys! :)<br>

... going in to Autumn here it is pretty spectacular. On the first night there was a festival, lots of little candles were lit and lined the walls along some of the main streets and the churches. There were fireworks and bands that were marching the streets. The next day the rain started and then the electrical storm. Our "Cycling the Tuscan countryside" trip was postponed. Lucca reminded me a little of Venice minus the canals. Lots of houses close to the streets with ...

... first program excursion to Capri, Sorrento, and Pompeii and I'm really excited. I will let you know how it goes. PS: I figured out how to copy a link to my Facebook photo albums so I won't need to upload all of my pictures here. If you want to see my photos of Lucca, just click on the link below! I am going to paste links into all of my previous entries so you can see the other places I've been. http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?a id=2070843&l=803d9&id=35805155 Ciaooo!

Off to Lucca today, a perfectly walled town in Tuscany. Unfortunately the town planners failed to include a campsite within 50 miles so our stay was limited to a day. First stop was the Piazza Anfiteatro Romano, a circular piazza on the site of a roman amphitheatre which is spectacular. After a couple of obligatory stops for cafe lattes we climbed the Torre Guinigi for views of the town, which bizzarely has ...

... Pappardelle was fabulous, which is one of my favorite pastas. After lunch and a walk around Montefioralle, which is a lovely, quiet small town, I headed down the hill and to the center of town. I had a little time before heading to the bus stop. It was interesting to see the piazza completely empty of the market vendors and their goods. Trash was everywhere with several people cleaning the piazza. While at the bus stop, I ran into the young woman ...